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Rugged Warehouse never really caught my notice while it was in the Barnes & Noble plaza on Harbison Boulevard. I hit B&N fairly often, and Outback and Chili's from time to time, but I guess I never go over to the back part of the plaza. I'm not even sure how long it was there. For some reason I can't find my 2009 phonebook, but it's not in this year's, and it's not in 2008. However, I can't find the Forest Drive store in there either, so maybe I'm somehow looking in the wrong place.

(Hat tip to commenter RM.)

UPDATE 4 April 2012 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew, Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse is in the offing:

19 Responses to 'Rugged Warehouse, 262 Harbison Boulevard: 2010'

I hit this place quite often, and am sorry it went down. They had a wide variety of items. I would call it "Big Lots of clothing." I picked up everything from $150 Merrell boots for $40 to Carhardt sweatshirts for $12, toys, etc. You never knew what you would find. The reason you can't find them in a phonebook is their number is unlisted. Yep, crazy. Reasoning is they don't want you to call and say "Do you have...?" They just want you to come in. They will be missed, but I will still hit the Forest Drive one, and there is one in Florence and Augusta.

@JBL This was actually originally a Micheal's as I recall. Before the current Columbiana Station location was built around ca. 1999 they were located here. They used to have a clock uptop before the storefronts were renovated by DDR.

By the way, Chipolte is indeed coming soon according to something I saw in the paper to the former Alltell Wireless location in one of this particular center outparcels. There was a brief writeup on it in today's The State talking shop article.

I always thought it was funny, or maybe just a testament of the Bible Belt, that Harbison could support two religious bookstores pretty much across the street from one another. When I pull up to Total Wine, there is never a doubt about who is going to Total, who is going to A.C. Moore, and who is going to the religious bookstore. Although some of the A.C. Moore people could wander to the bookstore. They don't wander over to Total much.

Jonathan, when the City of Columbia started allowing beer/wine sales on Sunday, Total Wine started opening at 10:00 AM on Sundays. The Christian bookstore was still subject to Lexington County's blue laws, so they weren't allowed to open until 1:30 PM. We always joked you could kill 3 1/2 hours in Total Wine while you waited for the Christian bookstore to open.

Family Christian Bookstores moved into Harbison Center from Columbiana Centre (as I recall) shortly before Bi-Lo #84 moved out into Bi-Lo #442 (6021 St. Andrews Road) in late 2001/early 2002

I'm not sure how long LifeWay was there but shortly after Boater's World closed their brick & mortar stores, LifeWay moved into the former Boater's World at Columbiana Station. You can still shop Boater's world at boatersworld.com (they are now owned by Ritz Interactive) much like is the case with Circuit City/CompUSA (Systemax Group), Service Merchandise (Raymond Zimmerman) if you go on their respective (dot)com names...

folks, this is about to become a place called Off-Broadway shoes...and the two stores adjacent to this are now showing as vacant meaning the Avenue that used to be here is closing and Toys & Games, Etc. closed recently as well...not sure what DDR has in mind but we shall see...

Off Broadway is big score for this shopping center. Looks like they are finally trying to get this center out of mediocracy with Chipolte, Starbucks and this. Not sure what else has been added the last few years but this place always used to be one of my least favorite centers on Harbison (though I did enjoy Rugged Warehouse sometimes and the restaurants).